We are just a week away from celebrating the Thanksgiving Day festivities. But, the pomp and prep have started way back. On that very day, families gather together under one roof to enjoy the mouth-watering and scrumptious full-cooked Turkey. The families enjoy various meals, have conversations, and watch sports. But, since the second decade of the 20th century, there has been one more indelible tradition that has become an integral part of every American: the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade.
The annual tradition kicked off when Macy’s expanded their retail store. When they covered Broadway and 34th Street, it became ‘the world’s largest store’ covering 1 million square feet of retail space. The first parade took place in 1924 with the immigrant employees walking through streets with inflated balloons and zoo animals from Central Park Zoo. Today, many renowned celebrities, Broadway artists, and bands take part in the parade. But, how did it become such an integral part of American culture?
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Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade Was Started As A Christmas Celebration
Now a Thanksgiving tradition, the Macy’s Parade was started to mark the arrival of Christmas. When the tradition took place for the first time in 1924, the owner and founder Rowland Hussey Macy arranged the parade for the Manhattan store at 34th Street. The celebration took place for Christmas and Macy’s declaration as ‘world’s largest store.’ The first parade took place on November 27th, 1924, and took the procession from Harlem to Herald Square.
Since then, the parade has taken place at 9:00 A.M., and NBC has telecasted the procession live since 1953. For the first parade, the theme was popular nursery rhymes. So, all the inflated balloons were in the shape of a nursery rhyme character. There was the Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe, Little Miss Muffet, and others. There were real animals who were from the zoo. As it happens now, the parade ended with Santa Claus on his sleigh with reminders.
In 1927, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade organizers started to introduce floats instead of real animals. So, for the very first time, they introduced the various floats we see today. The first one was that of the Felix Cat. There were very rare times when the Parade was canceled and that was during World War II from 1942 to 1944. Even after the attack on the World Trade Center in September 2001, the Parade was not affected. The compatriots of the USA gathered in solidarity together. To express that, the first responders of the attack carried the Old Glory in two batches.
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What Are The 2022 Celebrations Looking Like?
The old traditions will remain intact. The parade will take place on the fourth Thursday of November which means this year it will take place on November 24th, 2022. In a statement, Will Coss, the Executive Producer of Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade, said that the pompous festivities “has served to bring joy to the millions who gather nationwide each year to experience it with friends and family.”
NBC and Peacock will telecast the 96th Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade on November 24th, 2022, at 9:00 A.M. ET. Al Roker, Savannah Guthrie, and Hoda Kotb will fulfill the host duties at the celebration. The star-studded morning will be attended by Paula Abdul, Jimmy Fallon, Gloria Estefan, Mario Lopez, Sean Paul, and others. The Broadway performance acts will include ‘A Beautiful Noise’, ‘Some Like It Hot’, and ‘Funny Girl’s’ cast will open the procession.
The main attractions i.e., the balloon floats will have many beloved cartoon characters marking their presence. Along with Astronaut Snoopy, Boss Baby, and SpongeBob SquarePants, there will also be new additions like Bluey, A Diary of A Wimpy Kid, and Stuart the Minion.
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